Hello, everybody. Welcome to the last chapter. Some more promises to keep and loose ends to tie up. I'm a little early, but I won't be near my word processor the upcoming weekend, and I did not want to drag this into next week.

Kokina: Thank you so much for reviewing. Seems, like you really had lots of fun, and I was so happy you let me know. I think, you got everything right, just keep in mind that the whole mess was first initiated by Maxwell. He definitely had no idea, what he triggered, though. As to Sculd - well, I guess, at some point, she simply became curious. If anyone has another interpretation, that's fine with me.

Because, as I tried to make clear before: I do not own Hellsing (anyway), and I do not make money with this.

+++Chapter 8+++

Walter and Seras watched the flames at the points of the pentagramma snuff out and the gleaming wire fall to the ground. They saw the ash-branch (that was an oak, actually) go up in flames, and parts of a greater tree rain to the ground. Smoldering leaves and scorched branches fell on the crouching form that materialised in the center of the ritual site.

Not quite sure what to expect, Alucard had transformed into that absolutely crazy-looking, lean monster with grotesquely elongated limbs and knee-long hair, whom Integra had first met in her father's dungeon.

He knelt over Integra, shielding her body with his and protecting her head with his arm. His head was bowed beside hers. Their hair was a spilling, moving mass of black and white-blonde, cloaking their faces. Integra's jacket was soaked in blood.

Walter saw Seras look on with red eyes the size of saucers and he had to admit, he felt a little worried himself. He cleared his throat:"Sir Integra? Are you alright?"

Alucard immediately raised his head and Sir Integra, flat on her back, turned hers. It relieved Walter of his worst fears. But it certainly did not make their position appear any less compromising. The only ones oblivious of the impression they made on their bystanders were the delinquents themselves.

"I am unharmed, Walter," Integra said."Thanks to Alucard."

She nodded coolly at her vampire. Just as levelly, he moved to let her get up.

Walter cleared his throat and stepped forward:"Seras found these on the roof..."

He held out two white gloves, torn and bloodied, but the symbols on their back intact nevertheless.

Integra stiffened: She had completely forgotten about the accessoirs.

But – the restrictions?

Alucard still squatted with one knee on the ground. His red eyes returned Integra's glance with the pleasant, calculating expression of a cat watching a small animal and wondering if it might be worth the effort.

I probably missed a chance, those inhuman eyes seemed to say to her. But do you regret?

Integra took the gloves from Walter. Slowly, very slowly, she approached her vampire. Just as slowly, he offered her his hand. He did not bow his head. They kept looking at each other, focussed and attentive, almost like strangers. Holding Alucard's gaze, Integra took first his left hand, then his right and slipped the gloves over the cold skin.

They were watched by a dozen pairs of eyes. No one spoke. No one seemed to breathe.

Except for Anderson: Maybe the paladin had seen Alucard willingly wiggling his fingers to assist Integra. Maybe he had noticed the subtle softening of their eyes, when the second glove was back in place, their master-servant-relation restored.

Whatever it was, he inhaled sharply and, as it seemed, disdainfully. Which, in turn, drew Integra's attention.

"One insolent word, Paladin, and I'll kill you!" Integra pointed her reloaded handgun."I swear by the ghost of my father, I'll kill you not only once, but again and again, without rest, without remorse or mercy, until – until Alucard has found a way to dispatch you once and for all."

"This, of course, will take time!" Alucard got up and stood behind her."You'll die an awful number of times, Anderson. Starting now."

"Alucard!" Integra pretended to be shocked."Control yourself! You're not going to turn him into a ghoul?"

"Good question...let's find out..." Alucard smoothly went to a crouch, preparing to charge.

"I order you to stop! He's a paladin!"

"Master!" Plaintively, the vampire raised his head to look at the woman. His black hair was gliding and whipping and moving, as if in a storm."You're torturing me deliberately!"

"Yes, and aren't you enjoying my little game?" Integra said softly, focussing her mind ...Alocando?

A truly lunatic grin spread on Alucard's face:"Yeeesssss, Master!"

Anderson looked back and forth between them. He had not heard the silent communication, but he seemed to sense it:"But - this is madness! This surpasses the blackest sin any witch has ever committed as she bedded down with her unholy master! The two of you cannot be in lo- "

Integra shot him.

"I warned you," she simply told the smoldering corpse."Besides, you've gotten the point of Hellsing master-servant-relations all wrong. Didn't he, Alucard?"

"Awww, master!" The vampire could not get out more. The sight of the blood had him writhing and fidgeting, the ecstasy of their game now turned into black claws of thirst that ravaged his innards. Missy! Missy Got-a-Gun!

"Distressed, are you?" Integra grinned. Blunt teeth greeted wolfish fangs. Red eyes gleamed. Glasses reflected the light of the rising sun.

A quickening of Integra's virgin pulse had Alucard charging, almost before Integra herself was aware that she'd made a decision.

It was messy. It was gross.

It was more than enough to assume, Anderson would have serious trouble pulling himself together and out of this one. He was flinging blades by the dozen, cutting the vampire to pieces. But those pieces just would keep coming at him, while they reassembled. Alucard was loosening pandemonium on him, while at the same time ripping him apart in the air and absorbing his blood, before it touched ground.

Some Hellsing guards had turned away. Others had to retch into the bushes.

None of them would ever again use the word „pet" anytime during a conversation that also addressed the topic of the Hellsing No-life King.

Eventually, Integra called her vampire back:"Enough, Alucard! I need something to ship back to the Vatican! You hear me? Stop it!"

Alucard turned to her, his eyes glowing insanely:"Master...what about Maxwell?"

"Maxwell? Maxwell should try and get a really good head start." Integra signalled her guards to step back."Just remember, I need him alive, too."

Alucard smiled at Maxwell:"Do you want to learn, what you can live through?"

Maxwell gulped:"You – you cannot do this!"

"But, yes, I can," Alucard assured amiably."So, do you want to learn, what you can - "

"Sir Integra!" Maxwell howled.

"The next church is Rosary Chapel, about a mile downhill. Of course, the sanctity of the place won't hinder my servant. But he'll respect it for sports."

Maxwell dashed for the woods, his silver pony-tail fluttering like a flag.

Kneeling on his dead-for-now prey, Alucard began to chuckle, then he laughed. He reared up and, screaming with laughter, flipped back his long black hair in a great arc.

Sie Integra looked on with her arms crossed, a dark smile on her face.

Walter offered her a light: "One of these days, he'll start howling at the moon," he sighed.

"What do you mean, he'll start? Where have you been, all those years, when the moon was full?"

A nonplussed look spread on Walter's face: "Oh dear. And I used to think it was the gardener's dog. German shepherd. He looks like a wolf."

"I know. Alucard and he get along pretty well."

They both looked on, as Alucard rose to his feet and tiptoed in the direction, Maxwell had fled. He paused, seeming to pick up the scent: "Ready or not, here I come, Maxwell!"

And off he went.

"Are you not afraid of him sometimes?" asked Walter.

"Sometimes," Integra admitted. "I've wanted to talk to you about it. But I've been wondering, indeed, if we could not put him on a short leash."

"Alucard?" asked Walter.

"Eh?" Integra cast him a curious glance: "Of course not! The gardener's German shepherd!"

They had not consciously decided to meet for dinner. They just did.

And somehow, Walter had laid the table for exactly these two.

There was roast chicken and salad for Integra, and there was bottled blood and a crystal goblet for Alucard, all ready and set, when they arrived. Integra entered through the door, and Alucard phased into the room only a little later, as if he were merely dropping in by chance.

They sat at the table, ackknowledged each other's presence and simply went about their meal. Integra savoured every bite, trying to delay the conversation that was bound to follow. Alucard lifted his goblet and studied the colour of the blood against the light.

"You killed me," he said in a conversational tone. "You finished me off, just like that."

"You started it," Integra reminded him. "It was you, who told my double to fight."

"She'd have remembered before long. We both know, the „Final Order" is exactly, what you would do."

"But we don't know, if it would work."

"That's right. We don't." Alucard finished admiring the fascinating sparkles of light on the crystal glass and downed its contents.

Integra continued on her salad. She was aware of her vampire watching her, maybe smiling a little. It was so obvious that she was evading to look at him.

Do you care for me so much? Or did you just feel guilty?

Integra decided to carve out his heart with her spoon, if he should repeat Sculd's question aloud.

He didn't. He was undead, but not stupid.

He said: "Seras told me, these enchanted tree-things would lead you to where-ever this ‚Ancient Mother Ash'-creature considered you "rooted"."

"A difficult choice, with two people clinging to each other the way we did," Integra said, making an educated guess as to his point. "Your roots go back to a castle, a tourist attraction in Eastern Europe. Mine are right here, at Hellsing mansion."

"I've got another working theory," Alucard said. "Is it so unthinkable, master – that we wound up right where we had started from, because each of us was already exactly where we belonged?"

Integra gave him an unreadable look over the rim of her glasses: "I utterly – absolutely, definitely refuse the idea that I belong buried under an undead body, with his hair in my face, his teeth within an inch beside my neck and his weight on my boo-bh-bosom."

"I understand. Would it make you more comfortable, if we switched positions next time?"

Integra muttered something unintelligible.

Alucard pressed: "Really, I don't mind! That awakening in our emergency ward was the best, I've had in years!"

"Oh, shut it!"

Knowing that he had gone far enough, Alucard let a heartbeat pass. Then he asked soberly: "Integra? What about my theory?"

She munched away at her chicken, taking out her anger on the poor, grilled beast.

Alucard waited. He had his head cocked, so his black hair fell deep into his face, partly shading it. He watched her from under this curtain of hair, a quizzical gleam in his red eyes. Silently, she dared him to try and wrest the answer from her thoughts against her will. His smile deepened, but he was not mocking. He was not mocking her at all.

Neither did he trespass on her secret.

She loved him for it.

But that was part of the secret, and something, she would kill to protect.

Eventually, Alucard got up.

"You're leaving?" Integra felt slightly alarmed, although she had wanted him gone only five seconds earlier.

"Got an errand to run."

Integra watched him over an impaled mushroom on her fork: "I take it, feeding on her is like sucking out the blue stuff at the bottom of the cocktail?"

Alucard stopped in his tracks. He did not turn around, but Integra could hear the smile in his voice: "Yesss..."

"Well, go and get yourself all the blue stuff, or the likes of it, that you want," Integra plucked the mushroom and waved her empty fork around. "But make sure, you don't end up in the same old mess again. And try not to get too bloody intoxicated to miss tomorrow morning's sunrise."

Looking over his shoulder, he winked a gleaming red eye at her: "And perish in the light? This won't happen. You've been watching all the wrong movies, master."

"I'll be needing you here. Tonight, we're monsters on a well-earned holiday. Tomorrow, we'll be back at shooting and ripping and doing, what we must, to survive."

Alucard flashed her a brief grin and left.

Integra stared at the door long after he had phased through. It was not correct to say that in the chaos of Sculd's mythical place coming down they'd somehow missed to take notice of their success. The celebration had taken place.

It had been in the first, tacit, caressing touching of their minds, as the telepathy was restored. It had been so warm, so tender, like a real lover's hands holding Integra's face and his lips brushing hers, ever so slightly. After that, there had been no need for words.

The celebration had taken place. She had believed it to be an instinctive response on her vampire's part. An unconscious reaction to her opening her mind so willingly.

But tonight, she had learned, that he could obviously touch her that way, whenever he wanted to.

Integra had no trouble subdueing the rather childish thought that he should want it more often. Yet, for some reason she could not help wishing, he had objected to her counting herself among the monsters.

Ann did not turn on the light, when she entered her room. She closed the door, took off her cardigan and threw it onto a heap of clothes beside the door. She put the little basket, containing leaves and mushrooms, on a table and busied herself with matches.

The candle, she meant to light, ignited by itself.

"Thanks," she said, only now turning around to the vampire sitting on her bed. "It makes me feel so much more comfortable to see, whom I'm talking to."

She certainly had a definition of comfort that would not be matched by many mortals. Alucard's red eyes followed her, as she dug his Jackal out of a pile of sheep skins.

"Is there anything, you'd like to say in your defense?," he asked. "Because I'm going to make you pay for the trouble you caused me and my master."

Ann used the hem of her sleeve to polish the gun's barrel, squinting in the faint light to look for fingerprints: "What is there to say? I did, what Maxwell wanted me to do. But there's never before been a vampire so determined to regain his undead state, that I know of. And even if there was, he'd have to find a girl, both so dedicated to assist and qualified for the ritual as your master. In the end, your strange pairing even managed to pique a valkyre's curiosity. By the way, I hope, she won't be in a pique with you now. I mean – she cooperated, she did your bidding, and look what you did to her in return!" Ann smiled slyly. "I'm sorry for the trouble. I didn't mean it. But all in all, I still think, it was a great night. Yes. I really do."

Alucard stared at her: "That's your defense?"

"No. It's a personal assessment." She held the Jackal to his head: "This is my defense."

Now, it was Alucard's turn to smirk: "You can't fire this gun without dislodging your arm. I don't care, if you try, though. Only remember, I warned you."

Ann shot him in the stomach, then handed him the gun, holding it by the searing hot muzzle.

"I'm a witch," she reminded him. "Witches do magic."

Alucard took the Jackal, the red glint of his eyes subsiding, as the terrible wound healed: "You know this is only buying you time..."

"I know that healing such a wound makes you want to drink, not spill." Ann pulled back her sleeve. "No side effects, if you don't take it to the extreme, Count. I promise. I need to be drained to work my gift."

"I hoped, you would say that!" Alucard took her wrist, hesitated and looked up at her: "Is there a special meaning to the crudely drawn illustrations of bulky keyboard instruments, heavy blacksmith tools and antiquated firearms on your mind?"

"It only means that I hope I tackled at the right moment to change your mind about making me pay."

"You know, there definitely is something about you, I really might come to like?"

"Aye," she said, holding her wrist closer to his teeth. "About a gallon of it. I wouldn't care, if you took more, though. Only remember that I warned you."

Alucard's fangs bit down.

+++The End+++

Well, so that's the wrap. Thank you so much for coming with me all the way. I had lots of fun writing this story. If you're here and reading this now, I assume, you had fun, too. So, the question is: Would you follow me to another crazy story? (Alucard is giving me the "time-out!"-sign. But is anyone here actually listening to monsters? :) ) I have a concept, but I will have to figure out, if it works. So, give me a couple of weeks, while I'll probably do some completely different stuff - maybe, we'll meet, and write, and read again.